A release of this sort should make non-CD-owning collectors green with envy—71 minutes of the finest Brahms piano music, played by one of the outstanding Brahms exponents of our day. What is most treasurable about it is the quiet rapture of some of the most quintessentially Brahmsian moments; for example, the way Lupu sleepwalks into the last section of Op. 117 No. 3 and the revelation in Op. 118 No. 2 that the inversion of the theme is even more beautiful than its original statement. The Op. 79 Rhapsodies are perhaps a fraction less memorable. Decca's recording sounds a little bottom-heavy, in the manner of certain Ashkenazy records of this vintage, and in the heavier textures of the Rhapsodies Lupu compounds the problem by reinforcing the bass with octaves and even fifths. Still, this remains as fine a selection of Brahms's piano works as you are likely to find on one record.'